VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Andrew Betton,
Asa Francis and
Solomon Hammond all won individual events to lead the Coppin State men's track & field team to a third-place team finish at the MEAC Indoor Track & Field Championships on Monday at Virginia Beach Sports Center. The Eagles recorded 82 points, behind just Norfolk State and Howard.
Betton had a spectacular second day of the heptathlon to win the event with a school-record 5,214 total points which is the second-most in MEAC history. He opened with an 8.52 in the 60m hurdles to record 855 points before winning the pole vault by clearing 4.24m which translated into 685 points. Betton leapfrogged Norfolk's Jaymes Saunders for first after the pole vault and clinched the title by winning the 1,000m in 2:49.65.
Hammond won the 60m dash in 6.70, matching the time he recorded in the preliminaries on Sunday.
Carl Drakes also added four points with a fifth-place finish in 6.91. Hammond and Drakes also took second and third, respectively, in the 200m dash, in times of 21.14 and 21.17.
Francis won his third-straight conference crown in the 800m, repeating as Indoor Champion with a time of 1:52.77.
Jayeed Norbal got out to an aggressive start and placed fifth in 1:56.20, followed by
Etiam Torgbenu in eighth at 2:03.45.
Coppin's 4x400m Relay of
Abdul Razak, Drakes,
Daniel Cunningham and
Jarrett Gentles took third in 3:11.63, and Gentles posted a fifth-place performance in the 400m dash in 47.98.
Jaidyn Brown also competed in the triple jump and leaped 12.52m (41' 1.0").
The Eagles are scheduled to compete at the IC4A Championships in Boston on March 7-9.
